"Hello. I'm Betty Parsons. And you're Doctor Janice Wycliffe, aren't you?"
Janice sighed, tossing her purse into the car, "Yes. Look, I don't want to be rude, but I don't feel like talking right now."
Betty leaned against the car by Janice's and folded her arms, looking at Janice. She was wearing slacks and a sweater, and there was a neutral expression on her face. A very attractive woman. Almost six feet tall and towering over Janice, but nicely built, with large breasts, proportional hips and thighs, and the face surrounded by the short, red curls was pleasant. But she was pushy. "I won't take but a moment," she said quietly.
Janice sighed; she felt battered and pushed about from all sides. Not tonight of all nights; it was too much. "Well, could we chat some other time? Really I'm in somewhat of a hurry, and…"
"Do you have to meet someone?"
Janice opened her mouth to reply affirmatively, then closed it. Lie? Why should she have to lie? "No, and I'll tell you why I'm in a hurry. I've had a hell of a day, and things have sort of piled up on me. I really feel like being alone with myself, honestly I do, and…"
"May I call you Janice?"
"Yes of course, but…"
"Janice, just listen to me for a moment. I've been around and I've known a lot of people, and I'm fairly sure I've figured out the… essential parts of your… personality. You're a quiet one – a hard one to figure out – but I know that I'm right…"
Good Lord. Did she have to scream at the woman to be left alone? "What are you talking about? Where is all this leading?"
"OK, I'll be plain about it, Janice. I want you to come to my place with me." Janice hissed with exasperation and started to get into her car to close the door, and the woman moved away from the adjacent car and put her hand on the door, stopping her. "No, please, listen to me, Janice. You can make any kind of conditions you like, and you can make all the rules. It isn't often that I get in a shape like this over someone, but you're something else…"
"You might start by not staring at me in the gym," Janice snapped, looking up at her. "I should think you'd have the sensitivity to realize that one would find that extremely embarrassing. Good Lord! Glaring at me like… like… I don't know what and everyone standing around… and…"
"I'm sorry, Janice," the woman murmured in a placating tone, "I'm very sorry, and I'll never do it again. I could see you were embarrassed, but… I couldn't help it the first time I saw you, and after that it was… well, a game, if you can call it that. No one else ever saw, though – I was careful about that. You mightn't have noticed, but if anyone was where they could see I was looking at you, then I kept my eyes to myself. But I'll do that and anything else you want. Will you come to my place with me? Please?"
The tone of her voice was now begging, pleading, and somehow she didn't seem as overpowering and overwhelming, as threatening. Even a little pathetic, perhaps. There was a note of stark loneliness in her voice, and her face seemed sad. And intuitively Janice knew she would be gentle and loving. Janice was conscious of her own attractiveness it was a fact of life and the tall redhead would be grateful. At the same time there would be an outlet for the churning turmoil inside her. Janice wavered for an instant, then shook her head and again started to get into the car. "No… no, I'm sorry… please move your hand…"
"Janice, you were thinking about it," the woman said, her voice suddenly urgent and pleading. "You were thinking about it, and you changed your mind. Now tell me what made you change your mind, Janice. Tell me, and I'll fix it. Honest to God, I'll fix it, Janice."
"Betty, I don't want to be cruel to you…"
"…tell me… tell me, and I'll fix it…"
"…don't want to be involved…"
"Involved?" Betty nodded emphatically. "You mean you don't want me bugging you – right? OK, fine. I won't. No, I mean it, Janice. I'm playing the hardhat role now, because that's the only way I'm ever going to get anywhere with you under these conditions, but after tonight, you'll have to call first. You'll have my telephone number and you'll know where I am, and it'll be up to you."
Now there was injured pride in her voice. The knowledge that she was demeaning herself by begging. Perhaps she thought Janice perceived a difference between them from a social standpoint or something. As if there were any such thing. She was a proud woman, and she had humiliated herself. Humbled herself. Remorse and pity began blending with the other emotions churning inside Janice, and hot, stinging tears were suddenly behind her eyelids. She put her fingertips to her lips as she blinked rapidly and swallowed. "Oh, God," she breathed.
"Hey, hey," Betty said, moving closer in sudden concern and alarm. "Now don't start waterworks, Janice, because… have I upset you, honey? Have I really upset you? If I have, then I'll just get my big ass back into that Cadillac, and…"
"No, no, you didn't…" Janice's voice faded away as she swallowed again and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, clearing her throat. "No, you didn't… isn't you, Betty… just that everything… everything's so… and I've probably been drinking too much…"
"Janice, if someone's been hard-timing you, tell me who the fuck it is, and I'll go kick the shit out of them."
"…perfectly capable of taking care of myself…"
"…see you in karate class, and I know you can. If some guy started to rape you, you'd knock his cock into his hip pocket, but at the same time someone might be able to put a bunch of shit onto you. You're a sweet little doll and you'd be kind, but I'm a big, mean bitch and I'll kick the shit out of some motherfucker and make them leave you."
"…don't talk that way, please…"
"Sorry. Look, Janice, I don't want to make you mad at me, but…"
"Where do you live?"
Betty looked at her in frozen, breathless surprise for an instant, then she drew in a deep breath and smiled as she let it back out with a sigh. "Why don't you just come and get in my car and I can bring you back…"
"I don't want to leave my car here – someone might… notice it."
"There's a parking lot about ten blocks from here. You could leave it there, and I can bring you back to it later. I live way the hell over in Oak Ridge, and it's hard to find your way over there…"
It was on the other side of the city, and it was also the most expensive, exclusive residential area in the city; apparently the Cadillac wasn't simply for show. "I'll follow you to the parking lot."
Betty started to say something, then she stopped herself and touched Janice's hand with a fleeting, gentle pressure of her fingertips before she turned toward the Cadillac, her face wreathed in a smile.
Janice followed the Cadillac along the winding drive from the country club to the thoroughfare, and then back toward the city. They got separated at a traffic signal, and the Cadillac pulled into the safety lane just on the other side of the signal with the emergency flashes blinking until the traffic signal changed and Janice drove through the intersection, then the Cadillac darted back into the traffic lane and cruised smoothly along the thoroughfare. A moment later it pulled back into the safety lane with its right turn signal blinking, pulling to the curb in front of a large, all-night parking lot…
Janice drove into the lot, parked, and got a ticket from the sleepy-eyed attendant, then she walked back to the entrance where the Cadillac was waiting. Betty leaned over and pushed the door open, and Janice slid in and closed the door. The interior of the car was plush and expensive, quietly luxurious with the deep, soft leather upholstery and the soft throb of the stereo tuned to a classical music FM station.
"The seat belt's on the door post," Betty said, glancing in the mirror and accelerating smoothly back onto the thoroughfare. "Is that radio station all right?"
"Yes, DeBussy's pleasant," Janice murmured, taking the seat belt down and fastening it. "How did you come to be in the country club parking lot tonight?"